4 in 10 employed Brits feel unappreciated by their boss

Have you ever heard the phrase ‘Too many chiefs, not enough Indians’? In todays society, it has become apparent that in some businesses there are too many employees who want to be managers and not enough willing to be workers. As there is such competition to work your way up the hierarchy in many companies (and having spent the last 8 months as the manager of a team of researchers myself) I decided to research what it is that makes a ‘good boss’. What qualities does a candidate need to hold in order to make it to the top? And do the majority of bosses deserve to be so?

The study conducted by OnePoll surveyed 1000 employed UK adults and asked them to discuss their current boss.

When asked if they had a good relationship with their boss, a huge 85% said they felt that they did. However, 62% said they wouldn’t consider their boss a friend and 41% of employed Brits feel like their boss doesn’t appreciate everything they do. Whilst most said that they like their boss, 16% admitted to not, with 30 people confessing to actually ‘hate’ them.

The top 3 traits for what we consider to be a good boss are: Approachability (53%), Respectfulness (46%) and Supportiveness (40%) with Appreciative coming close behind (36%).

Most people polled agreed that their current boss had all of the above qualities with 14% admitting that their boss is also demanding and 2% think their boss is a genius! (I can only assume that my own team took part in the research)

Interestingly, more people with female managers consider them to be respectful, appreciative, trustworthy, approachable, supportive and understanding than those with male managers. Similarly, more employees with a male boss (31%) consider them to be funny than those with a female manager (23%).

Whilst as a nation, we are still overcoming gender stereotypes and sexism, Brits today still think that the ideal boss should be a man, aged 45 with 2 children (all of which I am not, by the way…).

Apparently, the ideal boss also enjoys Eating out (24%), Walking (22%), Swimming (17%) and is an avid volunteer in their spare time (18%).

When participants were probed as to what they think their current boss could improve on in their role, we saw some interesting responses:

“Actually listen to the team’s ideas rather than ignore us, then realise that we were right a few months later and try and claim credit for our work with the directors.”

“Could be a bit more chatty”

“Be firmer and more decisive”“Understand family life”“Treat people with respect, be approachable, be interested, be a listener, be compassionate, be thoughtful to name only a few!”

Clearly it is difficult to please everyone, with contrasting comments such as “Be less soft” from one participant and “Be more stern” from another. Worryingly one person said “I really don’t know my manager well enough to answer”and another suggested their manager ought to be “less ginger!”

Luckily, not everyone thinks badly of their manager, one person wrote “not much really she is pretty great as bosses go” Again I assume this came from one of my own…

In addition, many employees had very positive things to say about their boss and what they do well in the role:

“Appreciates what I do, guides but never instructs, good sense of humour, respectful”

Those polled were also asked which famous individuals they thought would make the greatest bosses. Richard Branson came out on top as someone who would make the best well known boss (33%) with Bill Gates (22%) and daytime TV favourite Philip Schofield (20%) as close runners up. Twice as many men than women think that Roy Hodgson would be a great boss and 20% of women think that Simon Cowell would be the best man for the job, compared to 12% of men.

Tulisa Contostavlos who considers herself ‘The Female Boss’ has not quite lived up to her name with only 5% revealing she would make a good boss and after Katie Hopkins’ latest appearance on Celebrity Big Brother where she showed herself to be a leader, she still only had 7% of the vote.

So what is your boss like? Do you think you would make a great manager? Could you do a better job than your boss?

What I have learned from this study is that I do not fit the ‘ideal’ image of what a great manager is, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have what it takes to make the role my own and be the best manager I can be to the team. Of course there is always room for improvement, but it will always be a challenge to keep everyone happy. And besides, my team think I’m a genius…

OnePoll were great to work with. Their clear understanding of our commercial needs allowed for a flexible and efficient research project. This approach is invaluable to our small, fast-growing business. We’ll certainly come back to the team for future projects.

Paul DazeleyHead of Marketing at Kabuto Noodles

Thank you for all your hard work. The client has been extremely pleased with the presentation and analysis that the survey results fed into. I would have no hesitation in recommending you and the team to others.

Alfie SimPartner, Agent Within

Consumer insight is at the heart of everything that we do at Young’s, and OnePoll gives us the rapid access to our customers that we need to continually improve our business. Many of our recent innovations have been based on insight gained from OnePoll projects.

Iain LowrieCategory Insight Director, Young's Seafood

OnePoll were quick, responsive and efficient at recruiting for our online psychology research study. The sample they recruited was as we requested, and we shall certainly be using them again.

Dr Suzanna ForwoodResearch Associate, Institute of Public Health

The bowel cancer research we conducted with you received so much regional broadcast coverage – including a full day of reports and phone-ins with people recognising some symptoms and promising to get checked out. The volume of traffic to the symptoms page on the website shows that it can’t fail to have saved some lives as a result. An awesome result, thank you.

Anna MurrayPR Director at Formedia

You and your colleagues were absolutely great to work with – all very helpful, accommodating and the results are solid and returned with such a quick turnaround too. Very impressive.

Tom DukesonLily Pad PR

We needed to do a very short timescale project which required rotations of stimulus material and quite complex routing. OnePoll were helpful, responsive and cost-effective – and when timescales started to slip due to late availability of the stimulus material, their flexibility and teamwork meant the data was still delivered when we needed it.

Suze GommeAxis Management Consulting

OnePoll were a perfect partner for us; exceptional customer service, always replying quickly and thoughtfully. They delivered everything we asked for on-time, and never wavered in their commitment to get us what we needed to determine the best path forward. I can envision a long and perfectly-formed relationship.

Bristol

New York

I have been amazed by OnePoll’s ability to get high level interviews, especially those in niche audiences at C-Level. They are very responsive and attentive to all of my project needs.

Christopher LawrenceDirector of Research, Finn Partners

OnePoll were a perfect partner for us; exceptional customer service, always replying quickly and thoughtfully. They delivered everything we asked for on-time, and never wavered in their commitment to get us what we needed to determine the best path forward. I can envision a long and perfectly-formed relationship.

Nigel RothPartner, Davies+McKerr

The bowel cancer research we conducted with you received so much regional broadcast coverage – including a full day of reports and phone-ins with people recognising some symptoms and promising to get checked out. The volume of traffic to the symptoms page on the website shows that it can’t fail to have saved some lives as a result. An awesome result, thank you.

Anna MurrayPR Director at Formedia

Thank you for all your hard work. The client has been extremely pleased with the presentation and analysis that the survey results fed into. I would have no hesitation in recommending you and the team to others.

Alfie SimPartner, Agent Within

OnePoll are great to work with. They provide excellent project turnaround times from start to finish, making things much easier when dealing with our research requirements. Their research really adds to our content and helps enhance a topic for our viewers.

Vivek SharmaGood Morning Britain (ITV)

The service levels we receive from OnePoll are first class. They totally understand the pressures arising from our fast-paced business and can be relied upon to add value to our own thinking.

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